Hard dental tissues possess a complex hierarchical structure that is particularly evident in
enamel, the most mineralised substance in the human body. Its complex and interlinked …

Human brains are three times larger, are organized differently, and mature for a longer
period of time than those of our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees. Together, these …

An important question in palaeoanthropology is whether, among the australopiths and the
first fossil hominins attributed to early Homo, there was a shift towards a more prolonged …

Ontogenetic studies help us understand the processes of evolutionary change. Previous
studies on Neandertals have focused mainly on dental development and inferred an …

Reconstructing the detailed dietary behaviour of extinct hominins is challenging—
particularly for a species such as Australopithecus africanus, which has a highly variable …

Since the first discovery of Pithecanthropus (Homo) erectus by E. Dubois at Trinil in 1891,
over 200 hominid dentognathic remains have been collected from the Early to Middle …

Crocodilians grow slowly and have low metabolic rates similar to other living reptiles, but
palaeohistology indicates that they evolved from an ancestor with higher growth rates. 1, 2 …

Sub-fossilised remains may still contain highly degraded ancient DNA (aDNA) useful for
palaeogenetic investigations. Whether X-ray computed [micro-] tomography ([μ] CT) imaging …

Objectives Adult age at death estimation continues to challenge physical anthropologists.
One estimation method involves counting tooth cementum annulations (TCA). Non …

Ontogeny provides critical information about the evolutionary history of early hominin adult
morphology. We describe fossils from the southern African sites of Kromdraai and Drimolen …